Where does it stop though. If you were born here, you're American. Why label it anything else? Like I said, I'm not European American or Irish American. I'm a white (slightly tanned) American. You can still be proud and curious about your heritage (as I am mine) but not cause division by labeling yourself African American, Asian American, etc. We are ALL Americans, and we ALL came from somewhere else.
It will stop on its own as our somewhat separated cultures get over our past.
It did when the Irish and Italians became fully accepted as Americans, when Catholics became accepted fully as Americans, and when that largely happens for those of African descent, and they really *are* viewed as fully American by society at large, then all this stuff will become a non-issue.
Even those of European descent have had their divides. Maybe we forget that because it isn't an issue now as it was a century ago? It was a big scandal in my own family when my mother, who "was Dutch" decided to date my dad, because he wasn't Dutch but French.
We would think that "difference" is laughable now, eh?
And yet, the idea that there is some reason why blacks marrying whites should be just as accepted as those of Dutch descent marrying those of French descent hasn't happened yet, which I think should tell us there is still some progress we need to make in our country.
Not to interject matters of faith into this, but fwiw among Baha'is the racial divide between black and white is called the "Most Challenging Issue" for a reason.
Even within the faith, it takes a lot of work, patience, and struggle for people who all look to the same source of inspiration to cross that racial divide, but because we have that unifying thing in common, and really it's a cardinal principle of our faith that we
have to work on this, we all get tossed in together and just are forced to work things out, where much of America, well, you see your coworkers, but really, how much "integration" is there around the breakfast table?
I don't know if I can even describe the difference between what I see within my faith and what I see outside it, but I can tell you the difference is often...striking.
And we Baha'is still have a lot more work to do. It's not like we've even solved this intractable problem among just ourselves.
But there is hope, and yes there has been progress. You can tell a group is coming into its own in our nation by looking at how they move up into the power structures.
You could see it when people like the Kennedy family came into politics, for just one example. I'm sure there are other people here who were aroung when JFK ran for office, and people actually asked the question "Can a Catholic be president?" We would think that is a ridiculous question now, but it was taken seriously then. Now no one bats an eyelash about someone of Irish descent or a Catholic holding high office. It's a nonissue.
Well here we are in 2008, and yeah in some ways it's a repeat of JFK, in that there are still people asking the question "Can a black man be president?" Well yes, I consider that a ridiculous question, but there are still white Americans who think it's as serious a question as the one asked about JFK's faith.
That we've even gotten to this points shows that we have made progress, and just as we got over Catholics and "No Irish Need Apply" so we will get over the divides we have now.
It takes time for these things to happen. I'm speculating of course, but I've always thought the progress was slow simply because some people are not gonna change their ways and honestly the older generation just has to, uh, DIE for progress to continue. This is true not just on racial issues, but issues of religious and cultural prejudice of of any sort.
My children's attitudes are nothing like what I knew at their age. It would not have been acceptable for me to have any friends of a "different" race at that time.
The fact that my children and their friends of other descent are blown away by that fact and just cannot conceive of how that can be so shows that we have made progress indeed.
Patience, listening, compassion, understanding and more patience are the tools we desperately need to solve this problem.
Oh, and we need to be patient with each other too.
And faith. It will happen no matter what obstacles are set in our way.
Let history be our guide and our inspiration. This country has always been about widening the circle of "who is fully human" and I see no reason to think we are going to do an about face any time soon.
